MOVING SANDS IN AFRICA. 377 



sea, does it not evidently appear that all the country on 

 the west of the Nile would have been buried under this 

 sand before the erection of the cities of ancient Egypt, 

 how remote soever that period may be supposed ; and 

 that in a country so long afflicted with sterility, no idea 

 would even have been formed of constructing such vast 

 and numerous edifices ? When these cities indeed were 

 built, another cause concurred in favouring their prospe- 

 rity. The navigation of the Red Sea was not then attended 

 with any danger on the coasts ; all its ports, now nearly 

 blocked up with reefs of coral, had a safe and easy ac- 

 cess ; the vessels laden with merchandize and provisions 

 could enter them and depart without risk of being wreck- 

 ed on these shoals, which have risen since that time, and 

 are still inci ?asing in extent. 



The defects of the present government of Egypt, 

 and the discovery of the passage from Europe to India 

 round the Cape of Good Hope, are therefore not the 

 only causes of the present state of decline of this coun- 

 try. If the sands of the desert had not invaded the bor- 

 dering lands ffn the west, if the work of the sea polypi in 

 the Red Sea had not rendered dangerous the access to 

 its coasts and to its ports, and even filled up some of the 

 latter, the population of Egypt and the adjacent coun- 

 tries, together with their product, would alone have suf- 

 ficed to maintain them in a state of prosperity and abun- 

 dance. But now, though the passage to India by the 

 Cape of Good Hope should cease to exist, though the 

 political advantages which Egypt enjoyed during the 

 briliant period of Thebes and Memphis should be re- 

 established, she could never again attain the same de- 

 gree of splendour. 



